The Lioness and Mr. King--Complete
by ladyfiery
Summary: Philip unknowingly follows in his mother's footsteps.
1. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: Don't own them 

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"Okay, Mr. King, begin at the beginning, please." Philip could tell that the politeness was an unfamiliar jester to the man. He said it like a man says an unfamiliar name--there had been a slight pause before the "please" and each syllable carefully drawn out and spoken. He suspected that manners were seldom used in this man's job. 

Slowly, he opened his eyes to the blinding white room that had been his entire world for the last few hours that had felt like days. Philip knew that even if the lights had been the nice frosted ones, the starkness and lack of color in the room would have still hurt his eyes. His pounding headache assured him that it was an effective technique. Anybody would be willing to talk just to be allowed out of this room. 

"I've already told you everything," he sighed, weariness showing in every word. He just wished his head would stop throbbing. 

"Tell us again," the repetitive monotone ordered. Philip understood that he could ask for a break, but he had no desire for one. He wanted to get this process over with now. He never wanted to enter the overly-bright room ever again once he left it. 

He also was hoping to avoid the two men sitting across from him. Only the man on the right had spoken, but it was doubtful that the second man had a more pleasant voice. The young man had found it amusing when they had first entered the room. They looked, dressed, and moved almost exactly alike. Unfortunately, that monotony had soon bored him, and he had started to wonder exactly how they managed to keep their face so still. Did muscle relaxers help keep their faces chiseled in stone? Or, perhaps, they were really made out of stone for all the emotion they showed, he had thought with a mild sense of hysteria. 

Glancing over to the two-way mirror, Philip again began the tale of what brought him here. "It was my first semester at AU. I decided to take a class on the history of the middle east because my stepfather had told me a lot of stories about the various countries. I found them interesting and wanted to learn more. The class was taught by a Professor Luke Hamilton. It quickly became my favorite class. . ." 

"Mr. King!" Philip turned, surprised to hear his prof calling for him. Laughing at their good-natured teasing, he said goodbye to his friends. He stood there nervously waiting for the man to catch up with him. "I'm glad I got you. Are you on your way to another class?" the older man wheezed. 

Shaking his head, Philip smiled at the other man. "No, I was just on my way over to the dorm to grab a bite to eat." 

"Good, good! I was wanting to talk to you. Please, walk with me to the cafeteria. I'll buy your lunch." Philip started at the idea of a prof buying a mere freshman lunch. "I want to talk to you about a possible job, Philip. I think you would make a good candidate, but I want to get to know you a little better first." 

"What was the job offer, Mr. King?" the man with the monotone asked, bringing Philip briefly back to the present. 

"Kind of like a teacher's assistant, but instead of being a regular TA paid by the school, I worked directly for Professor Hamilton." 

The man showed no response to the answer. Philip was beginning to get used to it. Neither of them had shown any reaction to the more sordid details earlier. To be truthful, Philip understood that they were use to hearing worst. "What did you do?" the flat voice asked, attempting to be polite. 

"I checked papers, ran copies, got him lunch. I was a general gofer, more or less. Sometimes I took his car to be cleaned or ran some notes over to another prof. Nothing spectacular," he answered sadly. He ignored the waves of nostalgia and melancholy coursing through him. He would have time later to deal with the emotions and the reality of his changed life. Right now, he had a job to do. 

"Why had he chosen you?" 

Philip thought for a moment before answering. "He said he liked my interest in class. Most of the people there were just there to get a credit, but I really wanted to know about the area. I spent a lot of hours in his office and at his home, and he often talked to me about current events over there. Prof found them more interesting than what was happening here politically." 

"You spent a lot of time talking? So, you were friends?" Philip wished the man would go horse. At least then his tone would change a little. Several hours of questions by that same voice was enough to drive any man mad. 

Opening his mouth to answer, Philip was struck by the question. A flash of pain told him something he had not realized until now. "If anyone had asked me last week, I would have told them no. I just considered him a friendly boss, but. . .Yes, we were friends." 

"When did you begin working as a courier for him?" 

Closing his eyes, he recalled the day everything about his life started to change. It had seemed like such an innocent day. Again, Philip looked over at the mirror. "About a year ago, I went to the profs house and. . ." 

Philip watched his boss with amusement. He was use to seeing the man lying back and relaxing. The most excited Philip ever saw him was in class, talking about Middle Eastern tradition and politics. Now, the man's hair was mused from many swipes of his hand and he was pacing back and forth across his own living room like it was a prison cell. He only stopped occasionally to sneak glances out of the blinds. Philip briefly wondered why there were closed, but thought little of it. Starting to ask Professor Hamilton what was wrong, he flinched when the man suddenly swirled and looked at him. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "I never thought of it." 

Philip was confused. "Thought of what?" 

Hamilton, picking up a package from his desk, ignored the question. "Philip, I want you to do me a large favor. I want you to put this package in your backpack. I want you to leave here, go run some errands or whatever you need to do. Don't let anyone see this box! In the morning, before your first class, I would like you to take it and put in the mailbox on Dupont Circle." 

Philip glanced down at the nondescript package. "You want me to mail this?" 

"No!" Hamilton almost shouted. "I want you to take it to the mailbox on Dupont Circle. *Only* that mailbox! Do you understand me? It *must* be in *that* mailbox by nine o'clock tomorrow morning!" 

"Okay," Philip said gently. He didn't understand what had the professor so bothered, but he trusted him. They had worked together almost four years, and had an easy relationship. He only wished Lee had enough time to meet the man. Unfortunately, both men were usually very busy. 

Philip silently laughed at that thought. Little had he known that the two men shared a lot more in common than an interest in Middle Eastern politics and a hectic lifestyle. 

To be continued. . .


	2. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: Shoot the Moon! Not me. 

The air even seemed fresher. Walking out of the interrogation room, Philip felt like a man released after years of imprisonment. He knew it was just in his mind. After all, he was in an air-tight building. The outer room shared the same air as the inner, but it still felt wonderful to walk out of that horrible room. His headache was already beginning to clear. 

He stopped in his tracks. He had expected to find his Mother and Lee standing in the room. Instead, she stood there waiting for him. She held herself stiff, in an effort to control her emotions, he knew. He could see the red in her eyes. Anyone else looking at her would think she was tired, but he wasn't just anybody. He was the man that loved her. 

He opened his arms and she flew into them. He hugged her tight, wondering why she was trying to be so controlled. Surely, even these people understood grief. She had lost her father today. "I'm so sorry," he kept whispering over and over again in her hair. She just squeezed him tighter, refusing to cry. 

After a few minutes, she pulled away from him and gave him a small smile. She wanted him to know that she would be all right. "I'm surprised that they brought you in here. They seemed to enjoy their secrecy." It was then that Philip noticed the look on her face. He sighed. "You are one, too, aren't you?" 

Sarah nodded, somehow managing to look both defiant and ashamed. "Yeah, I'm one, too." 

Looking over his shoulder at the door, Philip asked, "Are my grandmother and Jamie about to come through that door? Everyone else I care about is a spy, why not them, too?" He knew that his tone wasn't the best in the world, but it had been a long day. 

Sarah just softly laughed. "As far as we know, neither your grandmother nor Jamie are intelligence operatives." 

Philip leaned against the wall. "As far as you know?" 

"Well, your mother didn't know you were an operative, and you didn't know that she was an operative. We live in a shadowed world, Philip. Best friends can both be agents without the other knowing it." She rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry, Philip. Knowing is usually on a need-to-know basis only." 

He lifted her chin so that she would look into his eyes. "Last night, Sarah, you accepted my proposal of marriage. When is that I would 'need-to-know'?" 

Softly caressing his cheek, she tried to soothe him. "People have retired from this business without their spouse ever knowing what they really did. They never tell their families the truth." He winced. "Philip, hiding from you, hurt Amanda far more than it did you." 

He felt the anger he had suppressed suddenly flare. "Hurt *her* more? Sarah, I feel like my entire life was a lie!" It felt good to let the anger out, to let someone know what he was feeling. For the last few hours, it had been about facts. The twin mannequins had been uninterested in his feelings. 

Sarah just gave him that look. It was a mixture of amusement and exasperation, and he had earned it several times since they had met. "What was a lie about *your* life? You didn't rush home to tell you mother and Lee that you were carrying sensitive documents for your government." 

Trying to gather his thoughts, Philip turned away from his fiancé. He leaned his forehead against the cool wall and struggled to explain what he was feeling. "I can. . .I can understand that she never told us, but. . ." He turned to look at Sarah, pleading silently that she comprehend what he was trying to say. "My mother---After Mom got a job with IFF, she changed a lot. She went from the mother that was at every game to the mother that may make it to part of one game a season. I tried not to get angry, but sometimes it was hard. I wondered why a film company meant more than I did. Now, I know what she was really doing, and I'm angry at me for not understanding, and I'm angry at her for--" 

Laughing, Sarah walked over to him. She cupped her face in his hands and smiled at him. "I know. I really do, Philip. I felt the same when I found out about Ham. So much I didn't understand was suddenly so clear. It's hard to be upset for her missing your senior play when you know that she was stopping the theft of a nuclear warhead!" 

"Mom stopped the theft of a nuclear warhead the night of my senior play?" Philip made a half-laughing, half-sobbing sound. 

"It wasn't the first time she had done it," Sarah's voice told him, gently teasing him. She always seemed to know just what he needed. "You should get her to tell you about the time that she stopped one from exploding with one of your 'Go Bombers!' pins." 

Suddenly, they both were laughing hysterically. Philip hugged her close and gave thanks that she was the same person--his best friend. He prayed that Lee and his mom would still be the same people to him. He knew his fear was irrational, but he worried that he would never be able to look at them the same again. 

His mother was having similar thoughts. Amanda stood in her husband's office waiting for her son to be escorted in from the interrogation room. She had stood outside that two-mirror for most of the session, her fist clinched in agony. She was a mother and that meant she was a protective instinct towards her sons. Even though she knew Bill and Zach were only doing their job--and were actually being extremely easy on Philip--she had wanted to race inside that room and yell at them to leave her son alone! 

"I should of known." It was the first personal thing that she had said since they had gotten the call during lunch. She rubbed her forehead trying to ease the pressure that was throbbing behind her eyes, and wondered what kind of mother wouldn't know something so important about her son. She allowed herself a moment to question how the knowledge might change her relationship with Philip. 

Lee's arms surrounded her, and Amanda felt herself melting into his embrace. Even in his office, they seldom allowed for many overt physical touches, but her wonderful husband understood how much she needed a hug right now. 

"He didn't know about you." Lee's calm voice also worked to soothe her fragile nerves. 

Amanda turned and looked up to the man that she had been in love with for over a decade. "It's not the same! I'm his mother!" 

Lee nodded. "And Dottie's yours." Amanda pulled back in surprise. She had forgotten about her mother. Lee grinned at her as he spoke. "Dottie even lived in the same house when you became a 'spy'. You even told her the truth at least once, and she managed to get involved in a couple of cases, and then there was that whole Stemwinder thing--" 

Amanda giggled. "I get the point! I get the point!" Looking back out the window, she leaned against Lee's chest. "I still feel like I should have known." 

Pulling her closer, Lee just laughed. "Amanda, since those boys turned teenagers, they have done things you have no idea about and probably don't want to know." 

Smiling, Amanda nodded. "When they were little boys, Lee, I always knew when something wasn't right. Now, my son not only becomes a spy without me knowing it, he's probably engaged without me knowing it!" 

"What?" Lee turned her around. "Engaged? To who?" 

It's not often she has the chance to surprise Lee anymore, but she knows what she is about to tell is going to knock him off his feet. "Sarah." 

"Sarah," Lee said flatly, not believing his ears. "Sarah? Your Sarah?" 

Nodding, Amanda walked over and sank into one of the chairs sitting in front of Lee's desk. "Our Sarah--the Lioness." Whistling, Lee sat down on the corner of the desk. Amanda rubbed her eyes and sighed. "You're right. There are somethings that a mother doesn't know and doesn't want to know! Lee, she told me *all* about *her* Philip, things she would have *never* said if she had known that I was his mother!" 

"She told you that she was dating a Philip King and you never made the connection?" 

Amanda looked into Lee's amused eyes and tried to find some answering amusement in herself. "She never told me his last name! I didn't even know that her father was a college professor. She just talked on and on about him. I was happy for her! She really started loosing up the last few months, and then last night before she left, she told me that she thought her Philip might propose. I'm not sure if he did or not, but Sarah has great instincts you know and I thought something was up with Philip last night when I called--he was very abrupt--" 

"Amanda, you are babbling." Lee's gentle teasing helped bring her back to focus. Her son was going to be in this room soon and she was going to be strong for him. No babbling about foolish thoughts and fears, she told herself. 

The gentle knock on the door startled them both. One reason it took them by surprise was, even after all these years, they could still get totally wrapped up in each other. The other reason was because they recognized Philip's knock, and they weren't use to hearing it at the Agency. Squeezing Amanda's hand, Lee called for his stepson to enter. 

Several hours later, an exhausted Philip King looked up from a stack of photos. "I'm sorry, Lee. He's just not in here." 

"It's okay. Something you learn about terrorists in this business is that they are like insects. They a 'breed' like crazy. Our most up-to-date files are horrible outdated when it comes to terrorists," Lee said, struggling to comfort Philip. They were close, especially considering Lee's role in Philip's life. He considered Philip a great friend, and believed Philip felt the same way. Unfortunately, today's events loomed between them. Both men were treading softly around each other. 

Leaning back in the plush sofa, Philip sighed in despair. "I just wanted. . ." 

"To catch your friend's killer? To catch your fiancé's father's murder?" Philip looked at him in surprise. Lee sat down in the chair across from him. "I assume you did ask? Sarah has remarkable instincts and she told your Mom yesterday that she thought *her* Philip was going to ask her marry him." 

Philip was silent for a moment. "I went to Professor Hamilton's house to. . .I thought it was really neat when you asked us for permission to marry our Mom. Real old fashion, but cool. I wanted to ask him for his daughter's hand in marriage. I knew he would be so excited." His voice broke, but he held back the tears. "I-I never imagined, never dreamed--how could somebody do that him? I mean to kill someone seems so--but they tortured him, Lee!" 

"I know." Lee watched Philip. The numbness was starting to wear off and the horror of what he had seen was beginning to sink in for him. He and Amanda had expected it. His reactions so far had been textbook. 

Placing his elbows on his knees, Philip covered his eyes with his hands. "I just stood there. Lee, I just stood there. I--One of my best friends was laying in a pool of blood, and I just stood there. It felt like hours. I-I know that it couldn't have been, but--He's dead, Lee. He's dead. When his killer walked out of the library, I just ran!" 

Moving to sit beside him, Lee draped a comforting arm around Philip's shoulders and let him cry. As much as he wanted to give words of comfort, he knew that his stepson just needed an open ear and a shoulder on which to cry. 

Looking around the bustling restaurant, Sarah fidgeted in her seat. "I'm sorry, Amanda, but I'm not really hungry." 

Amanda smiled at her. Picking up the menu, she said, "I'm not, either, but I'm eating and so are you. You know that you'll need your strength." 

"Will you order for me? I don't think I could even chose." Sarah noticed how weak her voice sounded, and gave herself a stern order to shape up quickly. She never let anyone see her weakness! She was the Lioness, and she knew better than anyone what that codename entitled. 

Watching her partner order them both Greek salads, she thought how untrue her thoughts were. She was falling into her old pattern. The cold woman that had started working with Amanda three years ago wouldn't have let anyone see her weaknesses. She had resented it when Lee had assigned her to the vivacious Amanda. Her warm smile and good cheer grated on Sarah's nerves. It was hard to take someone so happy seriously in their business. One case later though, Sarah knew what an excellent agent Amanda was and had gladly accepted her as a mentor. It had taken Amanda a little longer to get past Sarah's barriers and earn her emotional trust, too. 

Sarah felt hurt as she looked at the woman she considered her best friend. Amanda Stetson was the person who taught her to enjoy her emotions again instead of seeing them as weaknesses. Before Philip, she had been the only person in the world that Sarah totally opened herself up to, and now Sarah knew that she also had Amanda to thank for the wonderful man with whom she had fallen in love. That's why the barely noticeable reaction earlier had hurt so badly. It had been small, but Sarah had noticed it. She knew her partner well, and had read her thoughts as they flowed across her expressive face. 

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to ask the question that had plagued her all the way to this restaurant. "Amanda, why aren't you happy that Philip and I are engaged?" 


	3. Default Chapter Title

Gripping her water glass, Amanda slowly drank some of her water. Sarah's teeth were on edge, but she held herself in control. She respected Amanda too much to let her temper explode, but it was that respect that was hurting Sarah so much right now. She felt honored that she was about to become a member of Amanda's family, but the brief look that had filtered across Amanda's face earlier during the "announcement" told her that her friend didn't feel the same way at all. 

"Sarah," she finally began. "I'm not--Quit worrying! I know you, and you think it's personal. It has nothing to do with *you* at all. It has to do with. . ." Rubbing her forehead, Amanda reached down and picked up her purse. Riffling through it, she tried to explain to her new daughter-in-law. "I don't want him to be engaged to the Lioness." Sarah's heart broke, hearing the words. "I love you like a daughter already, but I don't like your profession." 

Sarah thought about that statement for a moment. Sarah had the same job that Amanda did, the same job that Amanda loved. "Amanda, I don't understand." They were words that she had used often in the beginning of their partnership. Amanda had a unique way of saying things that had confused the logical Lioness. 

Putting down her purse, Amanda took the two aspirin that she had found. She took a deep breath and leaned forward, causing Sarah to relax. As long as her mentor could look her in the eye, she knew that everything was going to be all right. "Sarah, you are great for my son. I know that even if I am just finding out about your relationship! It's just that I don't want my son involved in my life. One of the reasons, I got involved in the Agency is because I wanted a safer world for my boys! I didn't want them to go out and dodge bullets for a living." 

Sarah smiled weakly. "That doesn't--" 

"Have anything to do with you marrying Philip?" Amanda shook her head. "No, it doesn't really. He was involved in this world before you even meet him, but he was. . .Sarah, being a courier is dangerous, but it usually is a short term job." 

Sarah was beginning to see the picture. "If he wasn't marrying me, it could all be over. Amanda, just because I'm an agent, doesn't mean my husband's going to be! You and Lee are the exception, not the rule!" 

Laughing, Amanda smiled up at the waiter as he set their salads down in front of them. She thanked him and then waited a minute for him to leave. "Remember, Lee and I are the exception in a lot of things," she teased. She lost some of her smile. "Philip might decide to ignore the fact you are an agent, but *you* are an agent. It does affect your family, even if you don't want it to." Shacking her head, Amanda stopped Sarah from answering. "I know, Sarah. I do." 

Sarah leaned across the table some. "I do, too, Amanda. If it wasn't me that was the fiancée, you would be here today talking about Philip being engaged to some agent." 

Amanda sighed in obvious relief. "Yeah, I would be. Sarah, I'm so confused right now, but I do look forward to having you as a daughter-in-law. Don't doubt that, please." 

Sarah shook her head. "I won't doubt it again." Picking up her fork, she smiled. "We'd better eat. We'll need our energy later." The two friends sat back and enjoyed their lunch together, discussing what each wanted to see at the wedding. 

Back at the agency, Lee was talking to his friend, Sam Williams. Many of the fresh faces at the Agency thought it was an odd friendship, but then they hadn't known the pre-Amanda Lee Stetson. Sam reminded Lee of an earlier version of himself. Raised by an emotionally distant father, Sam had learned to keep his emotions close at an early age. After the loss of his wife in a robbery attempt, he had let no one close except his younger brother. Lee and Amanda were the only other people that knew the real Sam Williams. 

Besides the need to get in touch with his feelings, Sam also reminded Lee of himself in another way: He was a damn fine agent. One of the best, and that was why Lee was going to entrust the safety of his son. "Sam, we don't have a clue. The package Philip had on him made *no* sense to our code guys." Sighing, Lee leaned back in his chair so that he could look up at the ceiling. "I almost wish it said 'Peach Cream Puff'." 

Sam laughed at his friend's comment. "What?" He had never heard of the food code before, and he thought he had a general knowledge of most of the Agency's codes. 

Lee shook his head. "Sorry, I've just been thinking about the past a lot today." Sam's eyebrow raised as a silent inquiry. Both men understood the need for distance, so they seldom pushed for answers. They were close enough that they didn't hesitate to ask the questions though. "When this is all over with and settled, remind me to invite you over for dinner and tell you the story of how Amanda got involved in this business." 

Sam glanced out of Lee's office window and watched as Philip greeted his returning fiancée and mother. "Amanda? I just assumed she got involved like the rest of us." 

"My wife?" Lee's amusement was obvious. "No, my wife has her own unique way of doing *everything*." 

"Well that is certainly true," Sam said, thinking of a few cases he had worked with the spirited Mrs. Stetson. 

Standing, Lee said, "Lets go. I want to tell Philip and Amanda what the game plan is." 

Philip stood up when he noticed Amanda and Sarah walking back into the bullpen. He was glad to see that they were laughing together, because he had felt a little tension between them when they had left earlier. Lee told him that they were close friends, as well as partners, but he had still been worried. After all, he thought with some mirth, that every man wanted his mother to approve of the woman he loves. 

"Looks like you had a good lunch," he said, puzzled at how nervous he felt in front of his mother. She seemed to be different to him to him now. In his mind, he knew that she was still the same loving woman that she always had been. Finding out that one's mother was a spy was a. . .unsettling experience. 

Amanda hugged her son close, looking down at the desk he had been sitting at. There laid the remains of his own lunch. "Chicken salad sandwich from Victoria's pub? They do have good Chicken salad." 

Sarah giggled. "But stay away from the tuna salad!" 

Amanda's laughter joined Sarah. "Oh, yes, *always* avoid the tuna salad!" 

Philip felt a moment of jealousy at the easy way Amanda joked with Sarah. He felt like an outsider looking in, unable to play. He was an outsider. These two women, so precious to him, had done things in their life that he could only begin to imagine. Had his mother ever killed anyone? Had someone ever died in her arms? Had Sarah? He didn't know. Sharing an understanding about tuna salad was a small thing, but it represented an entire life to him. He wanted to get to know these women, the real ones that loved hard and then went out to save the world. 

"Victoria's? Yuck, why did you have to remind me?" Philip turned to see Lee and Sam Williams walking towards them. He had thought he recognized the voice. Sam Williams was one of them, too? Philip was really beginning to wonder just how many of his parent's friends were agents, and he had a sinking suspicion that most of them were. At least, he could be certain that the nice Lady Emily wasn't a spy. That sweet woman was British! 

"How are you holding up, kid?" Philip had always liked Sam. Jamie was a little leery of the man, but Philip always enjoyed the few dinners at home that the man had joined. 

Philip frowned, feeling uneasy in Sam's presence for once. An image flashed across his mind's eye: The Professor's murderer walking out of the library. Philip shook his head, forcing himself to smile. "I'm doing okay," he answered. Sam's concern was written all over his face--something astonishing in itself--but he just nodded at the answer. 

Lee went over to stand by Amanda's side. Philip was use to the sight. It always seemed to him that if the two were in the same room together, they preferred to be close. Very seldom had he had ever walked into a room at his home and found the two of them far from one another. "Sam's going to be the Agent in Charge of taking care of Philip at the safe house." Philip watched his mother relax and realized that she trusted the man, even with his safety. He felt himself relaxing, too. "He's taking first shift, since he knows Philip, and he can help get him situated." 

Sarah started to speak up, but Lee stopped her. "I need you here, Sarah. You knew your father better than anyone, maybe you can help us see something that we are missing. Philip didn't find any matches in our database." Philip squeezed her hand. He understood everything. He knew that she had a job to do, and he also accepted the fact that she wanted to be here. Staying with him at a safe house would drive her mad right now, because Sarah needed something to focus on, to keep her mind off her grief. 

At the safe house, the printer whirled and banged. Sam had laughing told him that he was lucky to be staying in a safe house with TV, VCR, and computer. "State of the art," he had joked when they had first walked in earlier. Philip had at first wondered around the house bored, unable to find a good show on television--or at least one that would take his mind off today's events. Sam had been busy coordinating the team guarding the house, so Philip had sat down and wrote a letter to Lee. 

The letters had somehow started early in Lee's "fatherhood". All of the men in the Stetson-King household wrote to one another now when the subject was important. They could talk, but somehow the subject was always started in letters. It helped everyone realize what each held important, and if there was a conflict, emotions were dealt with before the confrontation. Most of the time though, they were simply letters to let each other know what was going on in their lives. 

"Sam, are you going to see Lee tonight?" Philip asked when the printer finished its job. 

"Sure will, kid. Need me to take that to him?" Sam reached for the letter. He stared down at it. Philip could see the conflict pass across his face, as if he hesitated to say anything. Then, Sam looked up and gave Philip a half-cocked grin. 

"I don't want you think Lee tells everybody about these letters. He doesn't." Philip flinched in surprise. He didn't even think his mother knew about the letters between her boys and their stepfather. "I'm sorry, I didn't--" Sam took a deep breath and let it out loudly. "I don't handle this. . .kind of stuff well. I just wanted to tell you--" Sam sank down into the nearby couch, putting the letter down on the table in front of him. "I am probably the only person outside of yourselves who know about the letters, and I found out more by accident." Philip sat down across from him. Sam's eyes never left the letter. "We were working on a case. He walked in one morning with one of these. Your mother was out working a different part of the case, so she wasn't anywhere around or he would have probably have talked about with her." Sam gave a half laugh. "Then again, maybe not. He just sat at his desk, looking at the this letter. It--It kind of scared me. I thought it had to be really bad news, but I've never been one to hesitate to ask. . ." 

He picked up the letter, almost reverently. "He said it was a letter that one of his son's had wrote to him. Knowing that you were both teenagers at the time, I thought it had to have been horrible. Lee just laughed and said it was just something you all kind of did. I wouldn't thought much about it, but Lee didn't read the letter." 

Philip sat, fascinated to hear about this Lee. The man he knew always seemed sure about everything. Philip doubted he had ever seen Lee hesitate over a decision. It was also gratifying to know that the letters meant a lot to him. Philip knew that they did, but it was nice to hear it from another source. "I prodded a little, and he finally admitted that he always read each letter as soon as he could--except this one. He was pretty sure that he knew what this one was going to be about, and he was right. I watched him open it slowly, and read. Then, he closed his eyes for a minute, and for the first time ever, I saw that man go into a mild form of panic." 

Waiting for a few heartbeats, Philip finally asked, "What was in the letter?" 

Sam looked up from the folded pages in his hand. "Uh, I think that--" 

Philip blushed. "Oh, that letter." 

"Yeah, that letter." Sam smiled and then finished his story. "I never thought to see Lee Stetson--Ladies Man Extraordinaire--panic because his son had lost his--" 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it," Philip interrupted. Of all the letters-- 

"I thought it was pretty neat myself. Kind of blew me away. I never had that kind of relationship with my old man, and you were having it with your stepfather. Hell, you were having it with Lee Stetson! Until that moment, I thought it was temporary." Sam's voice showed his admiration for the other agent. "The only advice my old man ever gave on that subject was a warning not to be stupid like him and get caught." Sam snorted at the memory. 

Philip, his mind still on the letter he had written years ago, was confused by Sam's comments. Lee? A ladies' man? Not in this century! "What was temporary?" 

"The changes your mother had brought." Sam laughed. "You really don't know much about Lee's past, do you?" 

He had never thought about it. Lee didn't talk much about his past. Philip knew that Lee had been raised by an uncle, a colonel, because his parents had died at a young age. He had died of a heart attack before Philip could meet him, but Lee seemed to have a warm relationship with him in the few phone calls that Philip had heard. "No, he doesn't talk much about it." 

"Look close at me, Philip, and you will see a man that was very similar to the one that Amanda met." Philip's jaw opened. He liked Sam, but he didn't consider him anything like Lee. Lee was a family man who liked staying home. Sam, a loner, was a man who liked anything *but* staying at home. 

"How did Mom meet him anyway?" The question had been in the back of his mind all day. 

Sam sighed, leaning back in the couch. "I honestly don't know. Lee said he'd tell me the story after everything settles. I knew him before and after, Philip. I saw him two or three times when he was just your mom's partner, but never when he was with her. I'd like to know what happened those years myself." 

The room was quiet, the only sound was the gentle electrical hum of the computer. Philip thought about what Sam had shared with him tonight. Today had definitely been a day of revelations. "Sam," Philip finally broke the silence. "Was Lee really like you?" 

Sam's radio squawked before the man could answer. "Replacements approaching," the disembodied voice yelled into the tranquil room. Sam picked up the radio, standing. "Acknowledged," he answered back, ending the conversation for the night. 


	4. Default Chapter Title

Sarah stared at the display in the window. Amanda could tell that she was no longer seeing what was before her--her eyes had that slightly glassy look of someone deep in thought. She knew that the girl had to have been exhausted. They ran hard yesterday, and even harder today, making no room for the personal anxiety they was feeling. "It is a beautiful gown, isn't it?" 

Sarah flinched. "Uh? Oh, I'm sorry, Amanda. Yes, it is beautiful--just the kind I always dreamed of when I was a kid." 

Amanda, watching Sarah's reflection in the glass, smiled. "Somehow, I never pictured you as the kind of little girl that thought about growing up and getting married." 

"I wasn't really," Sarah giggled, or at least she tried. "After Ham left, I thought about it a lot. I could hear my mother crying at night in her room, and I thought about getting married just to show him that we didn't need him." 

Amanda tried not to react when she noticed the tears steaming down Sarah's face. Sarah Green was not one to let her emotions show, especially her pain. Lee often commented that Sarah reminded him of himself "BA". ("Before Amanda"--a term often used by him in a teasing tone, but everyone who knew him, also understood how serious he was about the joys Amanda had brought to his life.) "One day, Sarah will realize that hiding the pain isn't strength," he had recently said to her. Neither of them had been expecting the change to come soon, but life in this business brought few guarantees. 

"I need him," Sarah whispered, reminding Amanda of a little girl. "I loved my Daddy. . .and I hated him." The tears were starting to flow quickly now. Amanda knew that Sarah was about to fall apart, and she knew her friend well enough to know that Sarah wouldn't want anyone to see. She pushed Sarah over into an ally next to the bridal shop. They walked a few feet into the alleyway when Sarah fell to her knees and started crying hard. Amanda wanted to rush over and hug her, but sensed that Sarah wouldn't welcome the contact right now. Knowing Sarah, she was already berating herself for showing weakness. 

After a few minutes, Sarah stopped bawling. Tears still streaming down her face, she shivered. "He was always fun when he came home. No discipline, just do. Poor Mom--she had the day to day drudgery to put up with and so she always came out looking bad to me. 'She's no fun!' When I was a teenager, I didn't blame Ham for leaving her." 

Hugging herself tightly, as if to ward off the pain, Sarah kept talking, and Amanda just stood and listened. It was all that she could do. "When I figured out what his job was--Mom and her nine to five job was just too boring. I jumped on his offer to help out with courier jobs--just like Philip did. Then, the day I turned eighteen, he managed to get the Agency to offer me a chance in training. Do you know what they trained me for, Amanda? Do you?" 

Seeing the pain in Sarah's eyes, Amanda didn't want to answer. She and Sarah stared at one another for a few moments, before Amanda dropped her eyes and nodded. She knew why Sarah was called the 'Lioness'--she was a hunter. "I bet you don't know why I was picked for such a traditionally 'male' job. I didn't either for a long time. My Daddy asked them to, and I met all the criteria, so they did. My Daddy asked his friends to train his little girl to be a killer." 

Amanda flinched. "Sarah--" 

"Oh, I didn't kill many, Amanda. I remember the first one; I still see his face in my nightmares. He was a bad man. He had personally blown up several daycare centers and restaurants and. . . and his group was one of the best terrorists orgs their was--they had killed thousands. He was evil, but I took him out when he was out on a date with his wife. He walked out of that restaurant smiling, looking like a normal man, and I watched from the building across the way, and I put a bullet in his brain. I went to HQ, made my report, went home, and threw up." 

"I hated myself, so I did my best never to get an assassination assignment again." Sarah sounded like she was giving a book report--her voice was flat and unemotional. "I got good at hunting the animals down and bring them back to the 'pride', so good that they always wanted me to do those jobs instead. Not that just hunting the scum was easy on me. . . Ham wasn't pleased, believe or not. I think he wanted me to do what he couldn't do. He had to follow the rules and arrest them. I think with me, he saw an opportunity to take them out. Not many of us outside of the military are chosen for Black Ops." 

Sarah stopped talking, and looked up at Amanda. Amanda, unsure what to say or do, simply opened her arms, doubting that the hurting young woman would accept her offer of comfort. To her amazement, Sarah practically jumped into her arms, hugging Amanda so tight, she could feel it in her bones. "How can you both love and hate the same person?" she cried. 

"I don't know, Hon. I don't know, but I understand," she whispered as the girl cried in her arms. "I understand. I understand. . ." 

Amanda sat in the dark, thinking. The loud shrill of the telephone broke through the silence. Grabbing up the phone, Amanda leaned to look in the bedroom. Sarah didn't even shift on the bed. "Amanda?" she heard a familiar voice say from the headphone. Amazing how, after all these years, Lee's voice could still make her toes curl. 

She put the phone next to her head. "I'm sorry, Lee. I was making sure that Sarah wasn't disturbed." 

"She asleep?" Lee asked, amazed. 

"Yeah, she's in a pretty deep sleep, too." Amanda tried to keep the worry out of her voice, and she thought she did a good job. 

Lee's question told her different. Oh, well, he always could read her better than anyone else alive. "What's wrong?" 

"You said it would happen one day." 

"What?" Lee sighed, signaling to Amanda that he understood what she meant. He had learned how to understand Amanda years before, but sometimes she did manage to confuse him. "Did you think she will be okay?" 

"Yeah, with a little love and attention, I think she'll be just fine. She has a support base now to fall back on, and she's willing to use it." Amanda thought of Sarah crying in her arms, and she thought of the woman who would only say that she was doing "fine" after she helped arrest one of her few close friends for treason. Philip's influence on her was both noticeable and wonderful. 

"Oh?" Lee knew Sarah almost as well as Amanda did. He made it a point to know the people Amanda worked with, and he made it especially clear to Sarah that he expected to get close to her. He wouldn't let someone he couldn't trust partner with his wife. 

Amanda sighed, wondering what to tell him. "We were walking back to the car when she spotted a wedding dress in this window. She stopped to look at it. She was smiling, and then. . .She said that she started thinking of the opposites in her life. Lee, she was walking out from arranging her father's funeral, and spotted a wedding gown she wanted to try on. It finally hit her hard." 

"I'm glad it happened, Amanda. You and I both know she needed it, and I'm glad it happened away from here. She wouldn't have forgiven herself if it had," Lee said, trying to help soothe Amanda's raw nerves. "She was really lucky that she had you there." 

"I wished Philip could have been there though. She needed him, and he needed to hear what she had to say." Grimacing, she thought about her son and the possible problems he might face in his marriage. She tried hard not to worry about him staying in that safe house, because she would go crazy thinking about all the danger he might be in right now. "Did you know about Sarah's relationship with her father?" she suddenly asked, needing to know. 

There was empty air for a few minutes. "Amanda--" 

"Did you?" She didn't care about rules and regulations right now. 

Sighing, Lee told her without telling her. "We don't have many secrets from this place, Amanda. With all the psyche evaluations and mandatory meetings with the psychologist, agents don't have many secrets from their supervisors. He wasn't a bad man, Amanda." 

"No, but I don't think he was a very nice man, either." Amanda, worrying about what influence Luke Hamilton had on her son, closed her eyes and prayed he had very little. 

She could hear breathing over the phone, could almost hear the thoughts through his mind. They had done well at keeping the job separated from their relationship. They had learned early that they had to make sure their marriage stayed strong, especially after Lee's promotion to section chief. Everyone generally believed he was harder on his wife than he was on anyone, and Amanda accepted it as part of the cost of being married to the boss. He had to be harder--if he even treated just like the rest, someone was sure to yell "Favoritism!" 

Sometimes Lee slipped and let something out than he shouldn't, but usually Amanda was as much in the dark as the other agents. It was his way of protecting her. She remembered the hassle of the first few months after Lee's promotion--subtle jokes, sly comments, and outright questions to see what she knew. If she had of known, Amanda knew enough about herself to know that, no matter how much training, she was a lousy liar. 

"Amanda," Lee said softly. "I hadn't even met Luke Hamilton. I heard about him, and I made it my business to know what he was doing after Sarah partnered with you. I knew he was a professor, and if I had thought about it, I would have known the chances were large that Philip would have contact with him." 

Amanda lay down on the couch, staring up at the slowly rotating ceiling fan. Lee was trying to apologize to her, but she didn't want him to feel like he was responsible. She gave a sad laugh. "Well, I never thought about the possibility myself. Should of never agreed to let him attend school anywhere D.C." Lee laughed. "I don't know though. The way my family seems to attracts international intrigue, he could have went to school in Iowa probably would have been given a package, and told to give it to the cow wearing the red hat." They shared a laugh together over that line. 

"Amanda, I am sorry." Lee's words and tone told her how much he was worried about her. 

"Don't be. You aren't responsible anymore than I am." Amanda sighed, and asked herself how Lee knew she was thinking about Philip. Shaking her head, Amanda told herself that she was being silly. Lee Stetson had become an expert about Amanda Stetson, a connoisseur of everything Amanda. 

"He's a good kid, Amanda." Lee had a lot to do with Philip turning out so well, helping to keep him steady during the turbulent teenage years, but he wouldn't believe it; He always gave her full credit for the wonderful young men that her sons had turned out to be. 

Amanda thought about his comment for a moment. "No, he isn't, Lee." A heartbeat of silence loomed between them. "He's a good man, and while I may hate some of his choices, I have to admire them, too." 

Amanda could feel Lee's smile over the phone, and it warmed her. "Took after his old lady." 

"Yeah," Amanda answered. "And his old man, too." She closed her eyes and imagined Lee sitting at his desk, leaned back, relaxing as he talked to her. She could even see his embarrassed grin. Even now, he had a hard time accepting her compliments about his parenthood. He was an incredible father, and for a moment, Amanda regretted that they had decided not to have any children together. 

"I, um, guess you are going to stay there for a while." 

Amanda nodded, even though Lee couldn't see her. "Yeah, I want to be here when she wakes up, and I might end up spending the night if she needs me." 

"I'll see you in the morning, then." Amanda could hear the sadness in his voice, along with his acceptance. They hadn't spent many nights apart since their "marriage" had been performed in front of their friends and family. 

"Lee, I don't--" 

Lee stopped her. "Amanda, it's Sarah. She'll be even more determined to come in tomorrow." 

Amanda sighed and stretched. She hadn't realized how tired she was until now. It was so easy to get lost in the case, and forget the basics of life like eating and sleeping. "When Sarah wakes up, tell her we managed to pull a partial print from the library that so far hasn't turned up to be from anybody that we know was in the house recently, but. . ." Amanda could see him in her mind's eyes sitting up straight, getting back to business. 

"No guarantees," Amanda whispered, trying to imagine being in Sarah's place. She couldn't begin to understand the horror of having a parent murdered, and the additional pain of having no answers or clues as to why. 

"No, not here," Lee whispered. 

Amanda sighed, "There's no guarantees in life anywhere, Lee." 

"Amanda, for what it's worth, Hamilton is the reason Sarah got yanked off the team and brought in to be a field agent. He asked for it," Lee told her. "I think he understood what he did was wrong. Maybe he hadn't even realized how bad it was until he saw how cold Sarah was becoming." 

Amanda was quiet, thinking about the complex life of parents and children. What should be so simple was so complicated--had she really once believed that parenting was easy and over with when they turned eighteen? She smiled at the memory of her naive youthfulness. "Goodnight," she told her husband, knowing that he would be at his office until three or four o'clock in the morning and back in it by seven. 

"Goodnight, Beloved." He had teased her a lot since their trip to Rome, and his having found out the Latin meaning of her name. After the American scholar who shared that tidbit of information with him had gotten off the bus, Lee had leaned over and told her that her mother had an amazing knack for naming children: "Amanda" was a perfect choice. 

Reaching over to hang up the phone, Amanda noticed Sarah standing hesitantly at the bedroom door. Her hair was in disarray and her clothes were all twisted on her body. With that and adding the hesitantly look on her face, she looked like a lost little girl who had woken up to a nightmare instead of her pleasant home. "I'm sorry--" 

"Don't be," Amanda smiled, trying to reassure her friend. "How are you feeling?" 

Sarah gave a wry grin. "Like my head got blown off, my eyes torn out, and my throat feels like I drank some kind of acid." Amanda struggled again not to show her reaction. Such an honest answer from Sarah on what she was feeling, even physically, was indeed rare, or at least it had been. 

"Did I hear you tell Lee you might spend the night?" Amanda could hear the hope and the desire not to show it. 

"Yeah, I thought I'd just go ahead and sleep here, if that's okay." 

Sarah nodded, putting her hands into her jeans' pockets. She looked nervously around the room. "How about some popcorn and 'Dirty Dancing'?" 

Amanda's face lit up at the idea. She remembered how hard the Logan case had been on both of them. One night, unable to sleep, the two women and sat down in one of their hotel rooms and ended up catching the movie on Showtime. Nerves and giddiness reigned supreme that night as the two women "woofed" and "ahhed" as they watched Patrick Swayze make all his moves. 

"That sounds wonderful," she replied. Just what the doctor ordered, she thought. Both of them needed mindless fun right now. The could go work on the case, but Amanda knew that they needed some time. They would be more of a hindrance than a help to the investigation. 

Sarah walked over to her kitchen. Amanda got up and watched as her partner--her soon to be daughter-in-law--began pulling out a bowl with her hot air popper. "I didn't think I ever told you how I met, Philip." 

Amanda tried to sort out the comment, but realized that Sarah had lost her. "You haven't as far as I know." 

Sarah stopped to look at her. "Then what was the joke about the red hat?" Amanda stood still, suspecting what was coming, but not believing it was. When she didn't say anything, Sarah went on explaining, "Dad couldn't give Philip a package one day, and I had to do it. Such stupid directions! 'Give this to the man in the red hat!'" 

Amanda was shocked silent for a moment. She thought of a British lady and her cheeky Yank. She thought about herself with Lee, and now Philip with Sarah. . .She busted out laughing. The connection between the generations was becoming stronger. Sarah twirled to look at her, surprise written on her face. "What?" 

Between gasps, Amanda managed to get out, "We have to remember to warn the grandkids to watch out for men--or women--bearing strange packages!" 


	5. Default Chapter Title

Amanda giggled, turning to look at her husband. Even now, with the lines deepening around his eyes, and with the few strips of gray that managed to find their way in his hair, she still thought he was the most handsome man she had ever met. Actually, she admitted to herself, she found him even more attractive now than she did that first day in the trainstation. 

Looking over his sleeping features, she thought about why. Watching his eyes move as he dreamed, she realized what she found so much more attractive now. It was his eyes. Gone was the cynicism, the coldness. Lee's eyes today were relaxed, showing the inner peace that he had found years ago. They were often alive with laughter and joy, and Amanda would not have it any other way. 

"We need to do this more often," she whispered to her sleeping husband. Placing her head on his chest, she looked over at the clock. When Lee had dragged her out of the office earlier, he had told his assistant that he would be back in three hours. That gave them forty-five minutes before they needed to be back, and Amanda planned to take advantage of it. It had been too many years since they had snuck away from the agency and played hooky. Getting married before their friends and family had given them the opportunity to spend time together, ending their frequent runs to Lee's apartment. She had forgotten how much fun it could be. 

As her eyes closed, she prayed that Philip and Sarah would be able to find some time alone. They both needed each other right now. That's why Amanda had pushed Lee to let her partner see Philip, even though normally Sarah wouldn't have the chance. Lee had been reluctant, but Sam's offer to take her had finally persuaded him. 

Over at the safe house, Sarah was disappointed that she was getting to spend any time alone with Philip. She had known that she wouldn't, but an illogical hope that Sam would let her see him without the silent guard posted at the door had been in her heart. Hugging Philip close, she was happy that she was getting to see him at all. 

She wanted to tell him about her break down yesterday. She wanted to tell him about the stories she had shared with Amanda, and the stories Amanda had shared with her. She wanted. . . 

Sarah sighed, digging deeper into Philip's arms. She wanted to tell Philip everything. Now that the door had been open, she found herself struggling to keep it closed. Philip was no longer innocent about her life, no longer believed that she worked for a bank. She wanted to let him know about her life, about what she had shared for the first time yesterday with her partner. Amanda had been right. Being a spy, and having your family know, changed everything. She wondered how it would change Lee and Amanda's relationship with Philip. There was no question that it would, just one on how. 

"I love you, Sarah," Philip whispered in her hair. She kept her eyes closed, hoping that the tears would stay hidden behind her eyelids. A few escaped, and Philip apparently felt them. Pulling back a little, he reached up a hesitant hand and wiped one of the away. 

Turning to look at Sam, Philip said, "We are going to the bathroom." 

"Philip--" 

"You said it yourself, Sam. It's the safest room in the house. No window, one door. I'll be safe there." Philip began to drag her from the room. 

"If something happens, at least he'll have the Lioness with him," the guard said jokingly to Sam. Sarah flinched at the name, but doubted anyone noticed. 

Shutting the bathroom door behind them, Philip looked around the little room. To Sarah's amusement, he turned on the bathtub's faucet. Reaching over, he poured in some bathgel. He quickly undressed himself and then her. "Philip," Sarah began hesitantly. "I'm not sure--" 

Philip shook his head as he picked her up into his arms. "I'm not wanting sex, Sarah. I'm just wanting to hold you." 

Sighing, as the warm water surrounded her, she again wondered how she managed to find such a wonderful man. She remembered Amanda once jokingly offering to introduce Sarah to her son's. She had laughing replied that one "King" was enough. She should have jumped on the offer, knowing how wonderful Amanda and Lee both were should have clued her in on perfect their children would be. 

"What are smiling about?" Philip's voice was low. He would often tell her that she always knew exactly what he needed. She didn't think it was true, but Philip truly did know exactly what she needed, even before she did, and he always made sure to see to it that she got it. Most of the men that she had dated over the years, for personal and for work, wouldn't have thought about her needed time alone with them, and then they would have never thought of taking a bubble bath with her in the afternoon. 

Sarah pushed herself up and looked at the man she would soon marry. He was the most handsome man, and his soul was even more beautiful. "I was just thinking about the time your mom offered to introduce me to you or Jamie. I told her one "King" was enough for anybody." 

Philip smiled back at her. "I'm so glad I found you anyway." 

"Not as happy as I am. I'm so glad that I took that job for Ham that day. I was grumbling the whole time until you walked up to me." Both of them were silent for a few minutes. "I miss him," she admitted. 

"I do, too, sweatheart. I do, too." Philip drew her close to his heart, just where she wanted to be. She lay there silently listening to his heartbeat. He was alive, and he loved her more than she had believed anyone could. Love use to be a fairytale to her. Thanks to the King-Stetson household, she had learned that it was a wonderful reality. 

Moaning, Sam answered the phone. A laughing voice greeted him. "Sounds like you are working hard." 

"Hello, Lee. I've just been sitting looking over Hamilton's code. It's crazy." 

"I know. Crypto has had a fit trying to figure it out, but they haven't even come up with the first possible solution." Lee sighed. "I'm afraid this one is going to get away." 

"The murder?" Sam thought he detected something different in Lee's voice. 

"Yeah, we think we know what Hamilton was working on before he died at least. A couple of other agents have been going around talking to his known contacts. Rumor has it that there is a leak at the Agency." 

Sam's jaw dropped. "What?" 

"The terrorist are getting some inside information from somebody, and apparently Hamilton had found out who." Lee's voice was showing his fatigue. 

Sam whistled softly. "That means we can't let this get away, Lee. If we don't capture the leak now, we may never get another chance." 

"I know, Sam. I know, but we really don't have a clue on where to begin on this one. Not until Hamilton's strange message is decoded." 

Sam looked down at the cryptic message Hamilton had given to Philip the night before his death. It was as confusing as "Peach Pie" or "Peach Cream Tart" or whatever Lee had said yesterday. "I don't suppose food has anything to do with this." 

Lee was silent for a second, and then he busted out laughing when he realized to what Sam was referring. "No, Amanda, hasn't noticed any connection between it, and any program on our local stations." Sam tried to figure out what Lee was meaning. "Don't worry," Lee said, still laughing. "I will explain it one day. How's the visit going?" Lee switched the subject. 

Glancing over at the closed door, Sam grinned. "Okay, I reckon. They are taking a bath, I think." 

"A bath?" 

Sam's grin broadened at Lee's surprise. "Yeah, he grabbed up Sarah, said he would be safe in the bathroom, and then I head the bathtub running." 

Lee's pleasure was obvious in his voice, as was his pride. "Every time I think that boy has outdone himself, he turns around and surprises me again." 

"A quickie in the afternoon?" Sam wasn't sure what Lee was referring to exactly. 

"No, I doubt that, Sam. He's taking care of Sarah right now." 

Sam thought about his wife, Lisa, after her mother had died. He had taken her home from the hospital, drawn her bath, fixed her a light dinner, and carried her to bed where he had just held her. It had been years since he had thought of a woman that way. "Yeah, I say he is." 

It wasn't long after the two of them hung up that two water rats walked out of the bathroom. Sam had to grin at how water logged they look, and he doubted that many people had ever had the chance to see the great Sarah Green so vulnerable. Her wet hair lay limply around her freshly scrubbed face. She looked more like a child than a lioness. 

Standing, Sam smiled at them. "We've got some vegetable soup on the stove for you two. I figured you would be hungry when you got out of your bath." To his amazement, Sarah blushed. Walking towards the kitchen, he called over his shoulder. "After you eat, our replacements should be here, so we'll be heading home soon." 

In a few minutes, carefully balancing a tray, he walked back into the living room. He quickly spotted the two sitting next to each other on the couch. Sarah's attention was entirely focused on the paper in her hand. "Where did you get this?" she asked him as he sat down the tray on the coffee table. 

Sam and Philip looked at one another, but Sam answered the question. "It was Philip's last drop for your father. He was given it the night before, and he hadn't dropped it off, yet, which is why he called the emergency number." 

"I knew that, but. . .I hadn't seen it. I--I never worked with Ham on his encryptions, so I focused on what I knew, like his contacts and friends." She looked up at the two men, confusion written on her face. "This isn't a code," she said, moving the paper. "It's a fairy tale." 


	6. Default Chapter Title

Sam handed them both their bowls of soup. "I don't think I ever read or heard that fairy tale before, Sarah." 

Sarah smiled, accepting the soup gratefully. "My grandfather Hamilton was apparently trying to be a writer. He always wrote his own stories to tell his kids. From what I remember, they were good, but. . .Ham wasn't around much, and I didn't get to hear them often. I know that he read this one to me a few times, but I can't remember how it ended." 

Sam took the paper from her hand and read it again. It was an odd little tale about a little boy and his brother. The little boy adored the younger brother, but the younger brother was jealous. It ended when the younger brother noticed that other brother's pot of gold. At the bottom of the page was the notation JW0909082. "What's the letters and numbers represent?" 

Swallowing, Sarah shrugged. "I really don't know, Sam. I wish I did. I think I have some of my grandfather's old books at my house. We can go there and look at them, and see if this story is one of them." 

Sam yanked grabbed up the phone. He had a couple of calls to make. It looked like they might manage to capture the mole after all. 

Pulling up into Sarah's drive way, Sam suddenly let out a string of curses. "Sorry, Sarah. I just realized that I forgot Philip's letter." 

"Philip's letter?" Sarah said, opening the car door. 

Sam nodded. "I'm sorry. Would you mind if I went back for it? It will only take a couple of minutes." 

Sarah shook her head. "If you think it's important. . ." 

Sam smiled at the unasked question in her voice. "You'll need to ask that wonderful fiancé of yours what his letter is about. I noticed he had another one of the coffee table for me to take, and then I ran off and forgot it. I'll be seeing Lee in a couple of hours, so I really should go get it." He knew how important the letters were to them both, and he considered them good friends. Sam Williams never let down a friend. 

Sarah raced into her apartment as Sam quickly drove away. She hoped a cop wasn't waiting for someone to ticket, because Sam's speed was going to give him one. Shaking her head, she took off her jacket. Looking around her home, she noticed how cold and impersonal it looked. She had only been to the Stetson household a couple of times, but their home always seemed to welcome you with open arms. Her apartment was a place she just slept. She would have to ask Philip and Amanda both to help her redecorate. She knew Philip liked the size and location of her apartment, and it would be convenient for them to live there after they married. 

Reaching deep into her bedroom closet, she found the small box she was looking for and quickly pulled it out into her bedroom floor. It was such a tiny box to hold a past, but it was all that she had from hers. She kept very little after mom died. Too busy moving and keeping ahead of the game to keep much stuff. "Have gun, will travel," had been her motto for many years. 

Taking a deep breath, she sat down on the floor beside it. Quickly, before she lost her nerve, she opened the lid. On top laid a picture of her mother. She gasped in surprise and pain. This was the first time that the box had been opened since she sealed it years before, and she really didn't want to go through it now. She thought for a moment that if it had just been for Ham's sake, she wouldn't do it. He had asked so much of her while he was alive, she wasn't sure she had anymore to give him in his death. She would have to try though, for Philip, for Amanda, for Lee, for Sam, and for all the other agents working on this case. It needed to be solved, and she probably had the key in this box. 

She dumped everything from the box onto the floor. Spotting the few pads of paper that she needed, she reached over and grabbed them. Ignoring the smiling photos of a young woman who would one day be her mother, of a woman as a new mother holding a baby that would one day grow up to be Sarah, she read through the pads of paper. 

As an adult, she could see why her grandfather's stories had sold. Today, they would probably be bestsellers, but in the pre-Steven King era of her grandfather, the people would have been horrified at these stories, especially the way they were written. He had used the narrative of a fairy tale to play an ironic twist on his tales, something she doubted an editor of the 1930s and 1940s would be able to admire or consider selling to the general public. 

When she spotted the story she needed, she took a deep breath and began to read it slowly. As she read, memories of Ham reading to her began to flash through her mind. She wiped away tears as they fell down her face, hoping that one wouldn't splatter on the old paper, ruining it. She had cried more in the last few days than she had in a lifetime. "You are needing to make up for all the times you refused to cry," a voice whispered in her mind, sounding a lot like Amanda. 

She grabbed the phone by her bed when she finished reading. She wasn't sure what why she read was important, but it would at least give the agency a clue what to look around for now. "Hello," a familiar voice answered. 

Sarah laughed. "I'm sorry, Sam. I must have dialed your car phone by accident. I meant to call Lee." 

"Did you find it? I'll let Philip now, if you did." 

Sarah bit her lip to keep from laughing. "You are just now getting there?" 

"Don't ask," he muttered darkly. 

A giggle escaped. "Ticket or warning?" 

"That jerk? A ticket. Lucky for me, I know the judge." 

"Sam, you have got to learn to slow down." It was a familiar joke between them and the Stetsons. Sam's speed was legendary in the agency. He had four times the speeding tickets of any other agents. 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah--What the hell?" Sam exclaimed. 

Sarah tensed. "What is it?" Fear choked her, making it difficult to speak. If anything happened to Philip. . . 

"My brother's car is parked up front," he answered. "I know I didn't tell him anything about his safe house. I never do." 

Sarah thought of all the clues, and to her horror, realized what they were telling her. "Sam, call for backup." 

Sam snorted. "Sarah, some of the best agents around are guarding this house. I'm sure I'm safe." 

Sarah gripped the phone cord in her left hand. "Sam, listen to me. The story ends with the little brother betraying the other." 

"What does that have to do with me?" For once, Sam was being slow to understand. 

Sarah could here her own breathing. "Sam, what's your agency number?" 

"What?" Sam's frustration was obvious. "We never even use those darn things for anything except our paychecks! Why do you need--" 

"What is your agency number?" She cut in firmly, trying to make him see. 

"It's a--a 0909082," his voice trailed off as he realized what Sarah meant. 

"Jack Williams, brother of Sam Williams, Agency number 0909082," she whispered. She started to demand that he ask for backup, but the loud click in her ear let her know that Sam had hung up on her. 

Sam raced towards the house, spotting the few agents he knew were hiding in the trees and cars. They didn't move, knowing Sam's usual habit of quickly getting everywhere. Their lack of activity should be reassuring him that all was well in the house, but it didn't. They all knew his brother, having met him at the various bars where they all hung out together after work. Sam had always let Jack know what he did. He trusted him. He was his brother. 

His brother. . .Sam felt like he had been punched in the gut. What if Hamilton had been right? What if his younger brother had been jealous of him? What is he had saw the "pot of gold" of information he could sell? He had called his brother earlier, told him that things were heating up, and that he needed to work instead of going to the game? What if that had alerted him to the fact that Philip had some information about him? 

Even as those thoughts raced through his mind, he condemned himself for daring to think them. Jack was his brother and his friend. There was no way that his brother could murder a man in cold blood. 

As he opened the door to the safe house, he knew he was wrong. He stopped in shock at the site before him. Bob McCain laid dead on the floor, his blood splattered on the wall behind him. The door slammed shut, and Sam felt the cold metal of a gun barrel press into his neck. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, brother. I never meant for you to know--your too valuable, you know." 

Sam looked around the room, thrilled to see that Philip was still alive, if somewhat battered. He was on the floor, leaning heavily on the refrigerator. Sam was thankful for the ranch layout of the house, because it let him see into most rooms. It looked like his brother was working alone, at least for tonight. 

He couldn't let the sense of betrayal, the pain, overcome him. He couldn't. He had a job to do and a friend to protect. Sam Williams never let his friends down. "You okay, Philip?" He asked, ignoring his brother. 

Jack pushed him hard from behind. Sam stumbled and then righted himself. He turned to face the stranger who was his brother. "You always thought you were better than me. Oh, yes, you always made the better grades and always shined with the ladies, but look who's smarter now! If Dad was here, he could finally tell me that he was proud!" 

Sam closed his eyes. "Dad wouldn't tell you that, because he wouldn't tell anyone that. It wasn't his way." 

"You are a liar! He was always so proud of you!" Jack screams echoed across the room. Sam hoped that the agents outside the house would soon come running in, because he didn't want to have to kill his own brother. It was then that he realized that he hadn't ordered the microphones turned on again. He had told the van to turn them off after Philip and Sarah went into the bathroom, allowing them some privacy to talk. In his eagerness to find the mole, he had forgotten to order them turned back on, so the agents outside had no idea what was happening! 

Jack started to pace, agitated. He was waving the gun wildly in the air, which gave Sam hope and fear. It could easily go off, killing anyone in the room, but at least it wasn't aimed at them. He felt his muscles tense as he prepared to jump. Jack turned to look at him again, the gun pointed down at the ground. "You took his love away from me, just like you took Mom's!" 

Sam wanted to explain that his father had loved no one but himself, just like their selfish mother. They had been born to lousy parents through no fault of their own, but he knew that Jack wouldn't hear a word he was saying. He had built up a lie in his own until it was so big he couldn't see the truth. Sam jumped. 

Jack's anger gave him some strength, but Sam was the one with the training. He got the gun away from his brother and jumped back up, aiming it at the young man he had always tried to protect and love. Sam could feel his heart breaking again as he saw Jack look at him with hate in his eyes. How had he missed it all these years? 

"Jack," he tried to begin explaining the truth, but he didn't know how. "Jack, they didn't love either one of us." 

Jack's eyes glowed hotter. "Yeah, right," he spat, drawing his knees closer to his body. He began to rock. "You stole them from me." 

Sam looked over at Philip for just a moment, but it was long enough for Jack to draw out his gun that he had hidden in an ankle holster. "Sam!" Philip, starting to stand up, yelled. 

Jack's attention was totally focused on his brother now. Sam silently kept telling Philip to run, to escape the madman, but Philip just slowly edged towards the kitchen stove instead of the back door. "You are a nobody, Sam Williams. I am the smart one! I am! Do you hear me? Do you?" 

Sam nodded, his gun still aimed, truly hearing his brother probably for the first time. He wasn't sure if he could get a shot off first or not, and if Philip left, he knew that he would never shoot the man. He could fire his weapon to protect Philip, but not himself. He hoped Amanda's son didn't realize that and left soon. The agents outside could take care of Jack. 

"I am the best, Sam Williams," Jack said, bringing his gun up for a tighter aim. "I am the best!" 

Sam felt Philip standing to the side of the him and his brother. He wished the young man would simply leave so this battle could end, but Philip remained, slowly walking behind an enraged Jack. "I am the best!" he screamed again as he pulled the trigger. 

Sam jumped a little. As he felt the lead enter his upper chest, he realized that his idiot brother was a poor aim. At the same time Jack fired, Philip hit him over the head with a skillet. Jack's surprise would be comical, if he wasn't in so much pain. Sam clutched at his shoulder, watching as his brother fell into an unconscious heap. 

Philip raced over to him. "Sam!" 

"I'm okay, kid. It's just a shoulder wound. That brother of mine apparently didn't know how to aim a gun. I'm surprised he got McCain." 

"He acted like it was a joke." Philip looked over at the dead agent whose eyes still watched the ceiling. "He pulled the gun, talking about this show he saw, talking about how stupid the character was. Even when he put the gun to his head, Bob kept laughing. He thought he was his friend." 

"Philip!" Sarah's scream filled the room. Surrounded by fellow agents, she rushed into the room, and over to the two men. "Are you okay?" she asked breathlessly as she hugged him. 

"I'm fine," Philip answered. "I'm fine. Sam's the one that needs a doctor." 

Sam looked over at his brother. He thought of a little boy laughing as his brother pushed him on his swing. He remembered that young boy, now a man, holding his college degree, and the pride he felt as he snapped a million pictures. He remembered crying on the man's shoulder when Lisa died, and believing that there was at least one person he could trust. No, a doctor couldn't help him. 


	7. Default Chapter Title

Amanda looked around the room at her family and friends. Francine, newly returned from a second honeymoon, looking great tanned and happy, was sitting on her left. Billy, as Lee's boss, was also present for this debriefing. Agency life had gotten a lot easier when Billy, to the surprise of everyone, had been picked by an ill Dr. Smythe to be his replacement. Lee, as usual, was sitting to her right. Sarah sat in her customary place across from Amanda. 

There were two differences now. Sam was present, something that had happened a few dozen times before, but this time he was different. The big, boisterous voice was silent, and he was unable to hide the emotional agony he was in today. Amanda wished she could hug him, but now wasn't the time. He had accepted one from her at the hospital a few days earlier, before he had shut down emotionally from all of them, even Sarah and Philip. 

Philip was the biggest difference to her. Her mother had been interrogated once, after she had accidentally gotten involved in a case. Amanda had watched it, just as she had watched Philip's. No one in her family, however, had been brought into the conference rooms. Philip was being debriefed like an agent, and Amanda didn't like it. They hadn't spoken about his recent excursion into the land of the spies, with Amanda too scared to bring it up, and Philip too drained to mention it. She knew her son, though, and she could read the look in his eyes. She was going have to make a big adjustment in her life, and she just hoped that she could do it. 

"All of his accomplices have been arrested, and interrogation has begun. I expect we should have a full report by next Friday, sir," Sam finished softly. He was struggling to make the report, and Amanda wished he had allowed someone else the opportunity. Lee had allowed him to make it because, as he had told Amanda that morning, Sam needed to do it to exorcism some demons. He also knew the results of Jack's debriefing better than anyone. He had never left the room, his arm in a sling, as his brother spewed words of hate and anger at him. 

His brother's desire to show how smart he was had helped them to completely close that particular path of leaks. Jack Williams told them *everything* in an effort to show his intelligence, his brilliance, in planning. Amanda doubted that his accomplices were appreciating his "brilliance" right now. 

"Thanks, Sam." Amanda smiled at her husband's tone. He had been extremely easy on his friend, understanding some of the pain that the man was going through. He had been betrayed before, too, by people he thought loved him. It had never been a brother, however. 

Lee's attention turned to Philip. Smiling at his stepson, Lee spoke in mock seriousness. "Thank you for your aid, Mr. King." 

Philip grinned back at Lee. He looked over at Sarah and took a deep breath. "Lee, have you considered--" Another deep breath, and her son continued, "Have you considered. . .uh, my offer?" 

Lee looked at Amanda before answering. He had a silent apology in his eyes, and Amanda's eyes pleaded with him. She hoped this "offer" wasn't what she thought it was. Lee looked down, giving her the answer she didn't want. Philip wanted to work for the Agency, he wanted to be a spy. Her son was going to be a spy. 

"I have, and I want to talk to you more about it later," Lee answered. Amanda thanked him for giving her an opportunity to discuss it wit her son before it was brought up officially. 

However, Francine, never one to keep her curiosity in check, asked Philip, "What offer?" 

Philip flashed her a grateful smile. Her son was determined to discuss it now, and Francine had opened the doorway for him. "I want to help out here, part time, Aunt Francine, until I graduate in May." 

Amanda had to hand it to him. He had handled the introduction of his "Aunt Francine" as another agent very well. He had only looked like he had swallowed his tongue for a minute, and then he had smiled at her and asked how her second honeymoon with "Uncle Jonathan" had been. He waited a few minuted before asking if Jonathan was an agent, too. 

Francine turned to look at Amanda, understanding in her eyes. There was also a hint of amusement that worried her. "Part time? You mean like a civilian who just kind of drops in occasionally?" 

"Ha, ha, Francine," Amanda snapped. She glared at Lee after he left a few gasps of laughter out at Francine's comment. 

Sam, Sarah, and Philip glanced at each other, and then at the other agents sitting across from them. They didn't understand the joke. "For what it's worth, I think it's a great idea," Billy said, gathering his papers. 

"Billy, he's my son." All of Amanda's anguish was in those words. 

Billy turned to look at her, reminding her of a day long ago in his office. Nervous, flying high from the euphoria of helping Lee solve that first case, she had sat in front of Billy Melrose and told him about her adventure. His eyes had been so full of kindness and understanding. He had been amused by her exuberance like Lee and Francine, but, unlike them, he had also enjoyed and appreciated it. His gentle understanding, even more than her initial attraction to Lee and to the adventure, had given her the courage to keep coming back to the Agency, even when it was obvious that Lee didn't want her there. 

"Yes, he is, Amanda," Billy answered, smiling and nodding. "He has great instincts, can handle himself under pressure, and can think outside of the box when it comes to possible solutions. He is definitely your son, and *that's* why I think it would make a great idea." 

Amanda opened her mouth to protest, and then thought about what he was saying. He was right. Hitting a raving madman over the head with a skillet was more like something she would do than Lee. Even Sam had admitted, fearing that he would have to kill his brother, he had never thought about just knocking him over the head. The Agency had a habit of training their agents to think of kill first--it usually was the best solution in a world that did live entirely in the land where only the fittest survived. 

Philip had reacted like her. He had handled himself well under fire, and he was an adult. As much as she didn't want to admit it, her baby was growing up, and Jamie, her youngest, would soon follow him into adulthood. They both were becoming men before her eyes. She was going to have to accept that they were going to make choices in life that could hurt them, and she couldn't do a thing about it. Long gone were the years that she could sit on their bed with a couple of mugs of hot chocolate and talk about their problems, showing them the solutions. 

The problems were larger now, and not as simple. Philip had lost a close friend to murder, was engaged to the daughter of that man. He and Sarah both were going to have to work through their emotional pain, and no amount of hot chocolate or band aides would take it away. Philip had witnessed the murder of man at point blank range. He would never be able to forget such an image. She knew, because she could still see the motionless form of a beautiful young woman lying on the sidewalk in front of her as Amanda whispered, asking Lee why the bad guys had killed her. 

As a quote she once read said, motherhood was forever having your heart walk outside your body. She was going to have accept it. She could hardly condemn him for doing what she had done for over a decade. She loved her job, in spite of the danger, and Philip seemed to share her feelings for the work. 

Meeting Lee's eyes, she could see that he agreed with Billy. He didn't care for the danger in their line of work, either, or at least he hadn't enjoyed it since they had married. It was why he had agreed to a desk job soon after their marriage became public. However, he also had the belief that somebody had to do it, and Philip showed signs that he was good at it. Lee would keep a close eye on Philip--he kept a close eye on all his agents--and at the first sign that he couldn't handle it, he would jerk him out of the field. She knew it without being told. Smiling, reluctantly, she nodded her head. 

Lee turned to look at Philip. Suddenly, he smiled when his eyes shifted to Sam. "You know, Sam, I think we have found you a partner." 

For the first time the entire meeting, Sam showed some animation. He shook his head violently. "I don't think so!" He looked over at Philip. "No offense, Kid, I just don't work with partners." 

Lee, Billy, Amanda, and Francine all laughed. Sam got up, smiling like a man who was the in the middle of joke and didn't like it. "You know I don't work with partners, Lee." They laughed harder. "If you will excuse me, I've got some paperwork that needs to be done." 

Sarah looked up at Sam, startled. "Sam Williams? Doing paperwork? Voluntarily?" She began laughing with the others. Philip, looking confused, began joining in with the others. The laughter was contagious. 

Sam sighed, and then walked out of the room, closing the door behind him a loud snap. Good thing the room was soundproof, or the laughter would have followed him all the way down the hall. 


	8. Default Chapter Title

Philip slowly approached Sam. His eyes scanned over the slumped form of the man who was going to be his partner, and he wished he could find the words to comfort the man. There were no words though. He understood the pain Sam was going, maybe even better than Lee or his mother, or even Sarah. They knew the sting of betrayal, but Philip was an older brother. 

He sat down on the cold steps, trying not to encroach into Sam's space. He sat silently, watching his breath dance in the chilled air. Sam sat, looking down at the ground, giving no sign that he even knew that Philip was there. 

He did know though. Philip hadn't been in the game long, hadn't really been even in the game, yet, but he had begin to notice how those close to him acted. Walking around D.C. earlier, it had struck him how totally aware of his mother, Lee, and Sarah were of their surroundings. Nothing seemed to get by their eagle eyes without close scrutiny, and Philip wondered how he had been so unaware of their actions over the years. Sam knew he was there, because he was trained to notice every movement around him. It was what kept him alive. Philip was going to learn it if he was planning to keep alive in the field. 

"What did you want to meet about, Kid? I had a hot date planned, before you called," Sam finally asked, still not looking up from whatever was interesting him about his shoes. 

Philip noticed the cold tone, the derision in Sam's voice, but he decided to ignore it. For reasons he was not even completely aware of, he admired this man. He also knew this man. Sam wouldn't let him close without a fight. He was trying to push him away with the "kid" business, but the very fact he canceled a date after Philip called, showed how important he considered the younger man. 

"I don't know. I just wanted to talk," Philip answered. "I wanted to talk about our, uh, partnership." 

Sam jumped up from the steps and began to pace. "I'm sorry, Kid, but that was a joke. I don't work with partners. People let you down, Kid. You can keep your back safer than anyone else can." 

Philip looked down at his hands, hearing the old pain. Sam Williams had been through a lot in his life, Philip knew, without even knowing the details. "Well, not partners then. Mom said she was glad Lee picked you to show me the ropes. She says your good." 

Sam gave a half laugh, half snort. "I am good, but I'm no teacher, Philip. If you are going to become an agent, you need to go to classes and Station One." 

Philip looked up, smiling. "I'm not wanting to be an agent! I just want to help out a little bit until I graduate. I need a new job after all. I want to learn some of what Lee and Mom do, and be a 'civilian aid' now instead of a TA." He frowned for a minute. "Even though that idea seems to send Aunt Francine into a laughing frenzy." 

Sam did laugh now. "I'm sorry. I never thought I would *ever* hear Francine Desmond referred to as 'Aunt Francine'." 

"She still goes by Desmond at the Agency?" Philip was learning more and more about the people he had taken for granted over the years. 

Sam leaned back against a column, letting out a deep breath. "Yeah, she's still Desmond at the office." There was a comfortable silence between the two. "Look, Kid, I don't I'll have much call for civilian help, but, um, I call you if I ever do. You do a mean skillet." 

Smiling, Philip nodded, stretching out his hands. "Thank you--for everything." 

Sam stiffened and his jaw hardened. "I let you all down, Philip. You saved yourself." 

"You didn't let anyone down, Sam." Philip refused to let Sam look away from him. "You forget that I've got a kid brother, too, and I can tell you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is no way I could shoot him to save you." 

Sam's eyes remained cold. "I didn't shoot him." 

"No, Sam, you didn't, but you were going to do it to save me. That's why I wouldn't leave." Sam started. Philip smiled at him. "Didn't think I could read the signs? You wanted me to leave so he could shoot you. I can understand it." 

Sam was silent for a minute. "Because you're a big brother, too." 

"Yeah, I'm a big brother, too." Philip watched as Sam's shoulders slumped forward. His words hadn't lifted the weight from the man's mind, but he had at least let Sam now that he did understand, at least some of it. 

While Philip had been watching his grandmother and brother closely for signs of being a spy the last few days, paranoid, he didn't believe they were really working for any government agency. Philip had also, to his own amazement, kept his mouth shut when Jamie was home for the weekend. After being upset at Lee and Amanda for keeping it a secret, he had found himself walking in their footsteps. Philip had even told him about his package deliveries, but now found himself mute about his new job. He didn't want to worry him. 

Sam looked at his watch. "If I hurry, I can catch Sherry at Kazmos." 

Laughing, Philip shook his head. "Your hot date?" 

Sam's smile was wicked. "No, her sister." Sam reached over and shook his hand. "Maybe I'll see you around sometime, you know." 

Philip nodded. His instincts were screaming at him that Sam was going to be seeing a lot more of him than he now realized, but he let the man have his illusions for a little while. "Yeah, see you around, Sam." 

Turning, Philip began walking to his car. He heard light footsteps behind him, and, his heart pounding, he quickly swirled around. He found his mother laughing silently at him. "Gotcha!" 

"You followed me here," Philip realized. 

"Yep." 

"I didn't see you." 

"Nope," was all his mother said, but it said a million words to him. 

"I'm going to have to start looking in my rearview mirror all the time." 

Amanda smiled, laughter in her eyes. "Yep." 

They began walking beside each other, neither one of them in a hurry to speak nor get back to their cars. "You are going to be good for him." 

Philip looked over in surprise at Amanda. "What do you mean?" 

"He needs someone to look after, someone younger, like a kid brother." Their footsteps hitting the sidewalk was the only sound for a few minutes. 

"I don't think he'll welcome me in that role, Mom." 

Amanda smiled. "No, he won't, but you are a lot like me. You are going to be good for him." 

Philip thought about that statement, and an earlier one that Sam made. "Was Lee really like Sam?" 

The sound of Amanda's laughter echoed back off the solemn monuments surrounding them. "He was a lot like him. A loner, didn't work with partners, saw himself as a lone wolf. Wouldn't let anyone get close." 

"Except you." 

Amanda nodded, tears shimmering in her eyes. "Eventually, yeah, he let me. It was hard work." 

Putting his arm around her shoulders, he leaned over to her. "Sarah was a lot like that, but she didn't have as many barriers." 

"I got her ready for you," was his mother's teasing reply. 

"That's what she told me. Thanks." 

Amanda leaned her head over to her son's shoulder. Both of her boys teased her about her "short" height now. They had grown like weeds in high school. "I did it for me. I'm getting to the age that I'd like to see some babies around the house without *me* being the one to make them." 

Philip laughed. "It will be a few years before that, Mom." 

"Oh, I know. I just want you to keep it in mind." Amanda stopped by her Jeep. She hugged her son close. "I love you, Philip." 

Philip hugged her tight. "I know, Mom. I know. I'll keep it mind." 

Begin to turn away, Philip twisted back to look at his mother. "Lee shouldn't have told Sam that he was assigning me as his partner. I'm just wanting to help out until graduation! I'm not planning on being an agent all my life." 

Philip watched a shadow cross Amanda's face. Then, she smiled at him. "I know you don't, sweetheart, but I think Lee was right. You are following in my footsteps." With that, Amanda stepped into her car, and shut the door. Philip waved as she carefully backed out of her parking spot and drove away from him. He wondered what his mom meant by her last comment. 

A gentle mist began to fall. Smiling, Philip looked up at the sky. In D.C., not many stars were visible, but tonight he could see a few. They twinkled at him, laughing. "Well," he told them. "I can't think of many other people's whose footsteps I'd rather be following." He had always known his mom was an amazing woman, but now he knew exactly how great she really was. 

Laughing himself now, he raced to his car as the rain began to fall harder. Sarah should be done with a surveillance assignment soon, and Philip had his own hot date set with her for later. 


End file.
